


vital signs

by anthonydarling



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Avalon Protocol, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Disturbing Themes, Gen, How do I tag this..., Hurt No Comfort, Irony, M/M, Steve Rogers: Captain Dad, Unhappy Ending, implied suicidal thoughts, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:27:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25855099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthonydarling/pseuds/anthonydarling
Summary: "FRIDAY, what's Tony's status? Why's he unresponsive?"
Relationships: (if you squint) - Relationship, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 68





	vital signs

**Author's Note:**

> This was posted on tumblr months ago and then in my tumblr ficlets work on here but I decided that I wanted to have it separate from that, so here we are!

The battle had just ended. It was a brutal one, and Steve made the decision to let SHIELD do the cleanup. His team had done enough, and they still had a debriefing to do before they could head home. They covered their mouths and noses from the dust as they picked through the rubble, heading wearily to the Quinjet. Steve's ribs hurt- he'd taken a nasty fall at one point and had probably bruised, if not cracked them. Natasha was limping, but her jaw was set tight, and Steve knew that pointing it out wouldn't do anything but earn a glare from her. Clint had an arm around a barely conscious Bruce as they headed back, and even Thor seemed weary as he walked through the wreckage.

Tony was unusually silent as he flew slowly and steadily through the clouds of dust and smoke.

Steve continued to keep an eye on his teammates (who he was the captain of, it was his job to keep them alive and he'd done well, obviously, everyone was still standing, but Clint was slouching and Thor's eyes were dull and Tony had to be hurt, he was so quiet, and Steve privately wished that the man would give himself a damn break) as they boarded the quinjet. Clint and Natasha took the controls, Bruce pulled a blanket over his bare shoulders, and Thor flopped gracelessly onto the seats. Tony pressed the close button for the ramp, then stood quietly by the back.

Steve pulled a handful of protein bars and water bottles out of the mini-fridge and began to hand them out. Everyone took one- they had to, Steve always looked so damn worried when they didn't, and they all agreed that he had enough to deal with. No one quite looked at him as they took theirs, aside from Thor, who accepted his with a faint smile.

Steve held the last one up to Tony with a rueful grin. "Hey, Shellhead, you're looking a little dead on your feet there."

Tony didn't move. Steve's smile slipped. Was he okay? Maybe he'd fallen asleep in there. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Hey, Tony?" He asked again, softly in hopes that the others wouldn't notice that something was wrong, but he heard several of them turn to look regardless. "Tony?"

Nothing. Nausea began to creep up his throat. Something was wrong. Not the normal type of wrong, Steve knew when Tony was hiding his pain, and this wasn't that. Something was _wrong._

"FRIDAY, what's Tony's status? Why's he unresponsive?"

The suit's eyes flickered as she spoke.

"I'm sorry, Captain Rogers, but Boss prevented me from informing you until you asked."

There was a beat.

"Inform you of what?" Clint asked, his words quiet but cracking through the silence nonetheless.

"Inform me of what, FRIDAY?" Steve choked out, and he knew, he knew what this was and his chest was squeezing tight and constricting his airflow but he was still better off than Tony, wasn't he, oh, God, Tony-

Friday's voice was soft. "Boss installed what he called the Avalon Protocol in this particular suit, Captain. It was put in action two hours ago. He created it so that, in the instance of his death, the suit would still operate in active combat-"

And she was still talking, Steve knew, but blood was roaring through Steve's ears and sounds were suddenly all muddled together and he couldn't feel his hands and someone was making these awful choking sounds and FRIDAY turned the suit, facing the back so that she could run through landing checks, flipping buttons and pressing switches with the suit's hands and Tony's lifeless hands and the floor was tilting underneath Steve's feet and, and, and-

The back half of the Iron Man helmet had been sliced clean off. Half of Tony's skull had been taken with it.

**Author's Note:**

> SORRY


End file.
